CH 381

“What? Is that an earthquake?”

The manager jumped at the large disturbance and quickly rushed outside with some of the others to see what was going on.

Although Claire wasn’t as startled, she was rather nervous and immediately dropped what she was doing and looked up to where the sound was coming from and was dumbfounded.

It was even more shocking than an earthquake as there was a meteor shower to the west of the city!

Flaming meteors fell down one after another and the flames were visible even from afar. Their tails dragged out until the skyline and fell into the western forest causing the earth to tremble.

Claire wanted to say something but didn’t know how to say it, then she pinched her legs to make sure that she wasn’t dreaming.

The meteor shower didn’t last long and stopped after tens of meteors fell and everything went silent.

“Princess Claire, what in the world…”

“I-I don’t know either…”

Who knows what the hell was happening in the western forest, but she was at least sure that wasn’t a natural disaster but caused by a certain grand magician!

The road to the west was blocked by a colony of ants and there was suddenly a meteor shower, was it a coincidence? No, it was clearly done to clear the ants.

The main question was who that person was.

“Could it be the special investigation team that Abra recommended? Although it’s a bit outrageous, if it’s them then perhaps they do have the strength… but the question is how did they know about the ants blocking the road and when did they get here?”

Claire felt herself getting a headache.

She was anticipating for them every day, yet they slipped right under her nose and she didn’t even notice until they brought down a meteor shower…

Claire felt like she was an idiot, how could she be so careless?

“Hm… the special investigation team, is it?”

The manager came back to his sense and thought about Claire’s words.

If it was the special investigation team, then there was no reason they wouldn’t even come to greet Claire… the problem is, other than them, he couldn’t think of any other possibility.

“Wait! I just remembered, those E-rank investigators that said they were going to break through the ants… they should be there now.” The manager fell into deep thought and quietly muttered, “It can’t be them, right?”

“What did you say!?”

Actually, Claire already had her suspicions, but she didn’t even want to entertain that possibility out of saving face. But now those words struck her fragile pride.

“Impossible, it can’t be them! How could those arrogant and impudent E-rank investigators be the special investigation team? Definitely not! N-no way…”

No matter how loud she tried to yell, Claire still couldn’t hide her lack of confidence as she began to even doubt her own words.

Actually, the possibility was quite high.

Those people came at the perfect time and other than being E-rank, everything else made sense.

Furthermore, Claire still didn’t know what that arrogant black-haired boy was called, so it was very likely he was Lin Xiao!

“No, no, no! Andre said that Lin Xiao should be a middle-aged mercenary… even if it was bullshit, Lin Xiao couldn’t be a bastard like that, right?”

Claire flared up just thinking about him. He looked to be 15 or 16, a couple of years younger than her, and he was followed by a group of useless pretty girls… what a strange group, Claire couldn’t believe that they were the special investigation team!

“Hmph, so what if they are? Such wild and insolent commoners aren’t fit to be investigators! Just you wait… don’t let me meet them again!” Claire turned and left in a fit of rage as she thought about how that arrogant boy ridiculed her.

The meteor shower outside the city didn’t affect her plans. She would follow through regardless of who it was that caused the meteor shower.

She just had to avoid the ants and look for Caesar, as for that annoying black-haired youth… it was best if they didn’t meet, but if they did, even if he was Lin Xiao, she would teach him a lesson!

Just like that, Claire gathered Andre and his men and carried out their plan when night came.

Claire wasn’t just avoiding the ants. She prepared two small teams, while they took the side road to avoid the ants, the other team would get the attention of the ants.

When loud noises came from the main road and along with the cover of night, their risk would be greatly reduced. The plan was actually quite safe and sound and nothing like being ‘thieves’ but it was unlike Lin Xiao’s idea of going head-on.

She actually also wanted to take them head-on! But she didn’t have that kind of perverted strength, so she could only sneakily take the side road…

Claire lead the team carefully down the bumpy side road and listened for movements in case a group of ants surrounded them.

“Tsk, why haven’t they started yet?”

According to the plan, the other team should have already started attacking the ants to get their attention and create opportunities for them, but after so long, Claire still hadn’t received any signals.

She thought the other team mistook the time but didn’t know that the other team and already arrived but found something strange…

All the ants were already gone!

All the attacking team saw was the burnt part of the forest and strange lumps of charcoal spread out everywhere, but they didn’t see any bloodsucking ants…

So without any ants, what were they supposed to do? And how should they send Claire a signal?

Just like that, Claire waited there foolishly for a while and finally lost her patience before rushing through the dangerous section of the road.

In the end, all her determination was fruitless because even during the most dangerous section, she didn’t meet a single ant.

The only thing they could hear in the pitch-black forest was the howling of the wind.

“Were the ants really all taken care of?”

The figure of that black-haired youth kept appearing in front of her and slowly fused with her idea of the middle-aged mercenary.

His relaxed sleepy eyes and kind smile, and also his calm sounding but arrogant tone…

His words kept playing over and over inside of her head, the more she wanted to forget, the more his voice reverberated and was driving her crazy!

“Bastard! I don’t care who you are and whether you took care of the ants or not… don’t let me see you again! Otherwise, I’ll, I’ll…”

Claire walked and cursed as she clenched her short sword while hacking at the thorns and shrubbery. Seeing that, Andre and the others didn’t make a sound and followed silently behind her as they rushed towards the first stop, Link Village.

A peaceful night passed just like that. They never had a single battle all the way out of the forest, it should have been a good thing, but they weren’t in a good state because they were too tired!

A night of no sleep and rushing the journey left Andre and the others barely hanging on with their willpower. Claire was in front the whole time and didn’t complain but she was already at her limit.

The good news was that when the first ray of light hit the ground, they finally arrived at Link village and can rest.

But unfortunately, they met a group of strange people.

No, not strange people, but the person that Claire didn’t want to meet.

“A-am I dreaming?”

She rubbed her eyes and saw six familiar people inside a worn-down house at the entrance of the village.